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Showing posts from April, 2011

We are home!

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It is so nice to be able to sleep in my own bed with my little girl in my arms.  I must say that while she slept quite well last night, I did not.  I was so worried about her that I kept waking up!  Go figure.  So what does one do after surgery and returning home, well she took a nap once we got home and then stayed awake for quite a while and "talked" to whoever would listen.  Then around 5:30 she became a bit fussy, I am not sure if she started to realize that her head hurt or that all the noise from Evan and Mandie being home was a bit much for her.  Either way we gave her some Tylenol so that she could get another nap in before it was actually bed time.   Jon and I on the other hand spent yesterday rearranging the living room and our bedroom.  You see things are quite different now that she is home and has a programmable shunt in her head.  If you get too close to her with any type of electronic device (phone, speakers etc.) then we have to take her in to the doctor soon

Day 2 at the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital

Well, we made it through the first night with flying colors! Willow was kept on morphine throughout the night (every 2 hours receiving a new dose) and that did help, but also so sad to see her in that state of glossy eyes and constant sleepiness.  Due to her medication she slept quite well and would only wake once the morphine wore off, I on the other hand got a total of 2 hours... Yeah I feel like a zombie today. The only downfall we came across was that her heart rate would fall while she was sleeping.  It is supposed to be in the 100's but her's was more like in the 80's. So they ordered an EKG this morning to take place after the Cat Scan. Both of those tests took place quite early in the morning, 5:30 and 6 am respectively!  So of course I was on pins and needles wondering what are the results, are we going to have to have surgery #2 already?? You know all the what if's of what could possibly happen..... Well thankfully my mind was put to rest around 9 am, the ne

I never thought today would have come....

Today was supposed to be a normal Tuesday.  I would work until 11 am, then come home for a quick pump & feed (what I call it when I have to pump one side while feeding Willow at the same time!!) and then off to her 4 month check up.  Well all of that went off without too much of a hitch.  Willow is now 25" long, and 13lbs 3 oz.! Her head circumference though was 46 cm.  At her 2 month check up it was only 40.4 cm. and according to my ped. the way she read the MRI report there was no actual blockage to cause any more head growth.... So what happened?? Well we are not sure, but her head grew.   So, while visiting a friend after the appointment I get a call from my pediatrician telling me to go to the ER where we will be able to get an MRI done immediately and get the attention of the neurosurgeon quicker..... So off I go in a panic (I do remember looking at the pedometers and seeing it read at 80+ mph) not smart I know but I was freaking out!! We got here around 2 pm, and then

Springtime in Michigan

I will start by saying this post would probably be better if there were pictures too, but I have none... There is still a story I can tell though if that will be helpful.  So, it is April 19th, yesterday my Evan turned 8 years old!  I cannot believe he is already 8 and almost done with the second grade (and silly me did not take any pictures of yesterday, no cake, no present pictures, nothing... :(   Yet the day still goes on! He woke up sort of sad, thinking there would be no cake or presents for him (oh woh is me right?!)  Well, yes I did the good mom thing and make him a funfetti cake (courtesy of Pillsbury), and then realized that I did not have enough funfetti frosting, I made chocolate. Only I thought I had enough ingrediants only to find out I was short on powder sugar.  Thankfully Jon once cooked for a living, so if I screw anything up, I go to him.  Well after a few additions, we get the frosting correct!  LOL  We also had a few lego sets for him.  So when he got home from s

Spring Break is over!!

Yes, while I love my children to pieces, I love that they are in school full days, five days a week! Spring break with an infant is tremendously hard work; as schedules get messed around, fun has to be had, and if you are not entertaining them every minute of every second of these school aged children's day, then off with your head! Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad, but seriously I felt like I had to be "on" at all times of the week. So how did the West children spend their spring break?  It started on Friday, April 1 at Play World for a friend of Mandie's birthday party.  Boy was that an adventure!  The children loved it, of course, Jonathan had never been there, so he was a giant sweat box of joy.  Evan began to remember that he had been there once before, and then only wanted to play with the video games, and was very disappointed when I would not give him money for tokens.  Poor boy, I promise, he survived though.  Mandie was overjoyed to be spending time